Maggie Daley `so grateful' for support in cancer fight

July 03, 2002|By Sabrina L. Miller, Tribune staff reporter.

With a broad, familiar smile on a scorching summer afternoon, Chicago First Lady Maggie Daley was calm and gracious in thanking residents for their overwhelming support Tuesday in her first major public appearance since announcing her breast cancer diagnosis last month.

Maggie Daley's appearance at the opening of the downtown Gallery 37 summer program, her pet project for the last 12 years, eclipsed the event itself. Daley received a standing ovation from the audience, consisting primarily of teens involved in the cultural arts program.

"I feel good and I am so grateful, really beyond words for the good wishes and the kindness and the concern and especially the prayers," she said. "They mean an awful lot and I am enormously grateful."

Daley, who turns 59 this month, is one of more than 200,000 American women who are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, according to the American Cancer Society. She confirmed that she has started treatment at Northwestern Memorial Hospital but declined to give specifics. She said she remains positive about her situation, although she was shocked by the diagnosis.

"I think everyone, no matter what, is shocked by it. But you pick up and you move on. . . . I'm not alone here. There are a lot of people who have experienced this," she said. "I think all of us who are engaged in treatment feel very positive, and we have such extraordinary things that are happening now in medical research."

Despite alarming statistics on breast cancer--1 in 8 women will develop the disease--early detection and improved drug therapies have significantly reduced the mortality rate. Daley declined to give specifics on whether the disease was discovered during a routine checkup or as a result of specific symptoms.

The intensely private Daley was relaxed while speaking with reporters, stressing that education about the disease is key to effective treatment.

"Most of us don't know enough about it. I challenge all of you to help us tell the story about what's happening now with medical research. It's quite extraordinary," she said. "There are wonderful stories and I think they should be told."

Mayor Richard Daley praised his wife as the strongest family member and said he, too, was overwhelmed by public support as well as his wife's upbeat attitude.

"She's doing very well . . . she's very positive. Unfortunately there are many, many people out there who have it. People come up to me, I mean 8 to 10 people [a day] saying their wife, their daughter, their sister, their mother, their grandmother," the mayor said. "It's amazing how many people it's affected."